Water for sale under Territory guidelines

The NT Roper River has been the recent focus of the water debate, after a former Country Liberals candidate was granted a large water licence.

Carmen Brown

The Northern Territory's Land Resources Management Department has set out guidelines for future water trading.

The department says anyone wanting to purchase water can contact licensees on the water allocation licence register, or place an advertisement.

It says an agreement is made between the two parties and generally includes the duration of the trade and price, which is set by the market.

Applications to trade have to be submitted to the department.

The department says there's no government charge for trading water and it would up to the buyer and seller to determine the cost per unit.

Registers from the Land Resource Management Department show dozens of Northern Territory individuals and companies could trade their water.

The registers show a large number of farms, stations, orchards, and businesses have allocations they could trade, if someone wanted to buy their water.

But most of the allocations are under 100 megalitres a year.

Some recently granted allocations of thousands of megalitres are not yet listed.

But the register does show, under current conditions, the former Country Liberals candidate Tina MacFarlane and her husband are not permitted to trade any of their allocation of more than 5000 megalitres.